Adil Najam
Seems like everyone who should have been a role model is becoming a symbol of shame.
The most prominent “aalim” in the country is spreading jahalat. The President of the Republic is shouting obscenities. And our endeared sportsman is biting cricket balls to cheat his way to victory (which still alludes him). And all of this is just what we have been talking about the last three days!
Yes, that is exactly what he did. With Pakistan on a losing streak, having lost the first four one-day games and well on its way to losing the fifth, Shahid Afridi took the cricket ball and actually started biting it, even as the television camera was squarely focused on him doing so. And why would Shahid Afridi indulge in this illegal, and rather disgusting, form of ball tampering?
Here is his response, in his own words:
I shouldn’t have done it. It just happened. I was trying to help my bowlers and win a match, one match… There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong. I am embarrassed, I shouldn’t have done it. I just wanted to win us a game but this was the wrong way to do it.
Is it just me or is he actually missing the point?
Read the statement again: “There is no team in the world that doesn’t tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong.”
What is he saying? That tampering is OK but his “methods” were wrong? Pray tell us, Sir, what would be the “right” method for tampering a cricket ball!
That Shahid Afridi, a cricketer so loved by the nation including at this blog, should do this makes the pain even more hurtful. Shahid Afridi has been slapped with a punishment of having to miss two 20-20 games. But, as blogger Teeth Maestro (where I first saw this video) argues, that is not enough and the Pakistan Cricket Board should itself look into the matter and provide sterner punishment.
Politics, media, and now sports. Let us please have some repercussions to bad behavior, somewhere!
Ban him for life – don’t let him come near cricket of any sort in Pakistan. He not only did an illegal act, which is also immoral and unethical, he shamed the whole nation and the name of Pakistan. There can be no excuse.
It was all a scheme of the infidels….They refused to provide Halal food to him..Being a devout Muslim, he does’nt believe in non Halal and non veg. He was hungry to the extent that the white ball seems white chicken breast meat…
And apart from that he said in his statement that he was desperate to make Pakistan win…Thanks god he didnt had a gun.
I hope pcb now take action:) I must say he did intentionally
My God, whatever was he thinking?……. how stupid can one be ?………….. As Faisal has already alluded to, it’s not the first time I think he should be banned for life.
Afridi was hungry.